Callum Devine and Noel O'Sullivan claim fourth successive victory in the Rally of the Lakes
Taking the lead on the Moll's Gap stage on Sunday morning, Derry's Callum Devine (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) and his Killarney co-driver Noel O'Sullivan went on to claim a fourth successive victory in the Rally of the Lakes, the third round of the NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.
On the 14-stage event, underpinned by Assess Ireland, they finished 14 seconds ahead of Welsh driver Meirion Evans (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) guided by Killarney's Ger Conway with the Hyundai i20 Rally2 of Welsh ace Matt Edwards and his Cork born co-driver David Moynihan 4.3s further behind in third.
Saturday's action was over a loop of three stages - two to the east and one to the north of Killarney - all repeated three times.
Onboard his Citroen C3 Rally2, reigning Irish Tarmac champion Keith Cronin was in superb form and with three fastest stage times the Ballylickey ace moved into an impressive 13.7s lead.
"There's a lot of loose gravel on the first two stages, the third stage is fine," said Cronin at the Liebherr service complex, cautiously adding: "I'm not one hundred per cent confident yet, we made a few improvements to the car and they are working well but I have a small bit of understeer."
Evans occupied second spot - 5.1s ahead of Devine with Edwards (fourth) 19.1s off top spot in a top six completed by David Kelly (VW Polo GTi R5) and Eddie Doherty (Skoda Fabia R5).
While Devine was Cronin's closest pursuer on SS1 (Headford), Doherty showed fine pace and slotted into second on SS2 (Lisbabe) despite issues with the pop-off valve that proved more of a distraction than anything else.
He remarked: "The tyres didn't work for that third stage (Red Bog) and I lost a good bit of time." Evans, akin to others found a patch of water on SS2, that like the opening stage was quite gravelly.
Cronin's rally ended abruptly on SS4 when his Citroen seemed to be a little airborne entering a lefthander, unfortunately, it careered to the right, clipped a bank before it rolled several times. Fortunately, himself and his Killarney co-driver Mikie Galvin escaped injury.
Their demise promoted Evans into the lead that stood at 2.5s from Edwards with Devine and Doherty tying for third, a further 6.7s behind. Stage by stage the quartet eased themselves away from the chasing pack led by Donegal's Michael Boyle (VW Polo GTi R5), who was 28.1s further adrift.
Evans could have been further ahead were it not for stalling his Toyota GR Yaris on SS5 while a delay at the start of SS6 led to cold tyres.
Devine benefitted from a few tweaks to what he described as a "few things" while Doherty, once more couldn't find the pace on the final stage. "It must be the car as I think I am going as hard as I can."
Edwards was ramping up his pace and with a growing confidence, it came as no surprise when he took the lead on SS7 where Devine also upped his pace, Evans was second but a 1.7s blanket covered the top trio illustrating the intensity of the rally.
Edwards was best on the final two stages and led Evans at the overnight halt by 4.8s with Devine ominously close - half a second further behind. Doherty, Michael Boyle and Declan Boyle (Skoda Fabia Rally2) completed the top six.
Rob Duggan (Ford Escort) led the Modified category by almost a minute but experienced alternator trouble while fellow local Colin O'Donoghue had issues with the water pump of his Escort.
With more experience than his rivals over the first run over Moll's Gap and Ballaghbeama it came as no surprise that Devine dominated both and moved into an 8.7s lead over Edwards with Evans another 6.3s behind.
Devine admitted to pushing hard on "The Gap" where he clipped a bale soon after the start. Then, on Shanara, Edwards was quickest to trim the deficit to 7.1s. Edwards was happy given his lack of experience as his Hyundai had some understeer on the fast corners. Evans was an additional 5.1s behind in third.
Doherty, who was 24s quicker on the Gap than he was twelve months ago, remained in fourth while Declan Boyle leapfrogged his son Michael into fifth when the latter slipped of the Ballaghbeama stage and dropped time. Declan's Skoda boiled the brakes at the start of Moll's Gap and he had no brake pedal until around two kilometres into the classic stage.
Devine sealed a fine win courtesy of the best times on the repeat of Moll's Gap and Ballaghbeama and he eased off to claim the laurels. Evans edged out Edwards for third spot after the latter punctured on the penultimate stage.
The top six was unchanged as seventh placed Rob Duggan (Escort) took the Modified honours.
Assess Ireland Rally of the Lakes (Round 3, NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship) Killarney
1. C. Devine/N. O'Sullivan (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) 1h. 48m. 15.7s
2. M. Evans/G. Conway (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+14.0s
3. M. Edwards/D. Moynihan (Hyundai i20 Rally2)+18.3s
4. E. Doherty/T. Murphy (Skoda Fabia R5) 42.7s
5. D. Boyle/P. Walsh (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)+2m. 35.9s
6. M. Boyle/D. McCafferty (VW Polo GTI R5) +2m. 43.3s
7. R. Duggan/J. McCarthy (Ford Escort)+5m. 12.3s
8. R. Caldwell/S. O'Brien (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)+5m. 14.6s
9. K. Eves/C. Melly (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+5m. 30.3s
10. M. Boyle/G. Byrne (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+5m. 49.7s.
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